Joshi Spotlight: ARSION Carnival ’98

https://archive.org/details/arsion-carnival-arsion-december-18-1998

It’s on Archive.org! And my favorite thing- tag teams in matching gear!

HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING ARSION- CARNIVAL ’98:
(Dec. 18th 1998)
* It’s one more ARSION show before the end of the year! This one is called “Carnival ’98” and has eight matches, including a Trios lucha match, two “Shoot Style” ones, and the Twin Stars of ARSION Title Match between Hiromi Yagi & Rie Tamada and Michiko Omuka & Yumi Fukawa!

ARSION Roster: Aja Kong, Mariko Yoshida, Rie Tamada, Yumi Fukawa, Michiko Omukai, Reggie Bennett, Jessie Bennett, Hiromi Yagi, Mikiko Futagami, Candy Okutsu, Esther Moreno, Mary Apache, Rookies: Fabi Apache, Mika Akino, Ayako Hamada

We start with the musical instrument most synonymous with pro wrestling, the harp, then the standard ARSION opening with the announcer introducing all the women- the roster is now quite huge with the addition of more luchadoras, plus the fighters. A veritable sea of empty seats can be seen on the hard cam, though, which has gotta feel dreadful. They drew about 1200 to a 5500 seat venue. Rossy Ogawa = GENIUS BOOKER! Remember that! Meltzer said it, not having at all been fed info by a friend of Rossy’s!

MIKA AKINO, MARY APACHE & FABI APACHE vs. ESTHER MORENO, JESSE BENNETT & METALIKA:
* A strange one for sure, as two luchadora teams add non-lucha talent, with the best rookie (Akino) teaming up with Gran Apache’s daughters to take on Esther Moreno (new to ARSION but an old hat working in Japan, often doing mini-tours here and there for AJW and other companies) & Metalika, plus the American rookie Jesse Bennett, here in a US-flag designed singlet. Moreno’s in brown, Metalika’s in orange, Akino’s in white & green, and the Apaches are in all the colors & tassels (Mary), and black (Fabi).

We’re JIP with the Akino/Apache team doing stereo tope con hilos, but Moreno does Hakushi’s praying ropewalk into flipping over both Morenos, then tricks them into Jesse’s double-clothesline and their team does dives. Everyone alternates lucha spots to incredible silence, making things look super-awkward, then the Apache team hits a Double Assisted SUPERBOMB on Metalika, who makes sure to fiddle with her mask before the kickout. So weird to see a huge move like that draw crickets and get a lazy kickout anyways. Metalika treats it as harmless as she powerbombs Akino, but the kid gets a run-up crossbody into the cross-armbreaker for the tap-out at (3:10 of 8:58 shown). Akino still looks amazing for her experience level. Moreno is as good as I remember, with good movement, heft, and flips. Nobody else had the chance to suck (which given what I was expecting, is a compliment).

Rating: 3/4* (not much to it as it’s just a collection of flips)

SHOOT STYLE MATCH:
SAYA ENDO (Neo) vs. AIKYO SATO:
* Oh GOODIE, now ARSION is getting into the “shoot match” stuff. In an AJW documentary, they describe stuff like this as a way to add “diversity” to the card. Why is a Neo wrestler doing it, though? Both are wearing the traditional gi. They do a judo grapple… and we’re immediately clipped to time expiring and Saya (now written as SAYA) is given the win.

SHOOT STYLE MATCH:
MIKIKO FUTAGAMI vs. CHI UNJYU:
* I… who the hell is this? Oh god her name has no link on Cagematch. So uhhhhh Futagami’s in white, and going against an unknown wearing a gi. Okay, so this is clearly a shoot match too, as you can see by how ugly and non-choreographed it is. uhhhhh or maybe they just suck really bad. Unjyu can only really do shoteis that are just slaps to the head while Gami keeps trying to tangle up limbs (or tie off the end of her gi sleeve). Chi gets caught in a heel hook and can’t get out, giving up at (5:20 of 7:51 shown). Hilariously, Gami is as blank-faced in real fights as she is in fake ones.

KICKBOXING MATCH:
AYA MITSUI vs. NATSUMI NAKAZAWA:
* Two girls with identical physiques now do kickboxing. They’re at least decent at fighting, throwing a lot of hard shows and even showy kicks above the waistline. Natsumi goes down in Round 2 to a kick to the side, then again in Round 3 and is unable to get up at (0:45, R3), bleeding from the mouth.

Please tell me ARSION never does shoots again.

TWIN STAR OF ARSION TITLE MATCH:
HIROMI YAGI & RIE TAMADA vs. MICHIKO OMUKAI & YUMI FUKAWA:
* So checking some previous cards, ARSION created tag titles in the summer of 1998! New hire (just out of retirement) Yagi teamed up with old AJW mainstay Tamada to become the inaugural tag champions, and have just won a “Twinstar of ARSION Tag League” to further establish themselves in the company’s Fall-to-Winter tour. And now they have challengers- the belts are up for grabs for the two hardest-working undercarders in ARSION. The champs are in matching purple & black gear like a WWF tag team, while Omukai’s in white & Fukawa’s in black. The challengers look sorta comical next to each other, as Omukai is a head taller and thin while Fukawa is short and curvy. Interestingly, Rie & Yumi were on a tag team for years in AJW.

The challengers tackle the champs as soon as they hit the ring and have to be pulled off, and they do the same after the bell, fighting into the crowd with chairs and stuff. Yagi gets fought into a VERY ugly double-suplex (was she sandbagging them and forgot to take the real bump?) but the champs fly around on them. Omukai gets double-teamed but fires off her overhead belly-to-belly on Tamada, X-Factoring her and they repay a “hold them for a dropkick” spot. But Rie fires up and starts beating the HELL out of Fukawa, earning a good crowd reaction, and Yagi adds judo. A double-DDT hits, but Fukawa makes a comeback and perfectplexes Rie right into another cross-armbreaker attempt. The kids attempt at Doomsday move, but Rie Germans Omukai and Yagi judo flips Fukawa right off the top in a good bit, getting two. Yagi & Fukawa keep doing groundwork that’s really solid whenever they’re paired up. Fukawa finally comes back with a heel hook and that leaves Yagi selling her ankle, allowing Omukai to take a bunch of shots at it, but Rie runs in and dragon-screws her and now SHE’s the one scrambling in ankle-holds.

The sparse crowd is just SO quiet for most of this- a building 1/5 full always sounds like shit. Omukai gets whipped off the top in a big bump and the champs both hit flying stomps into a DOUBLE flying stomp, but Omukai “Fuck YOU!” bridges out! She comes back with SUPER-SHOOTER strikes on the champs, but her & Tamada knock each other down in a weird bit (Omukai sells too late). Omukai fires up, only to eat a rolling elbow and does a silly lurching cartoon-sell for two, only to avert the Dragon Suplex finisher and backdrop suplex Rie, then catch her charge with a Rolling Sobat for two. Yagi missile kicks in to stop a Tiger Suplex, and Omukai starts eating missiles from all sides, kicking out after a fourth one. Tamada still can’t get that dragon, so rolling elbows Omukai in the back of the head and a Missile Dropkick Sandwich sets up the Dragon Suplex for the pin at (12:17). Weird, where was Fukawa in that ending sequence? Omukai never tagged her in and she made no visible attempts to save (but that’s probably what Yagi was doing on the pin close-up). But usually the partner is absolutely manic during a lot of that. The champs retain and we get a Peanuts theme song-sounding thing over the belt ceremony.

A good little match, fought quite “AJW Style” with the rapid tags and quick comebacks. The psychology was solid, with Rie fighting for her Dragon Suplex finisher repeatedly in the end, Omukai always escaping until they finally battered the shit out of her enough. But it was weird seeing the champs just fire off repeated double-teams and essentially fight one person for the whole thing while Yumi did nothing. She was seen on the apron a lot, so I can only assume Omukai just wasn’t tagging her and wanted to get all her shit in (kayfabe)- rookie mistake that cost her. Though it comes off more like an “Omukai Showcase” in the end, as she gets all the juicy double-team stuff, gets all the big kickouts, and finally gets battered to death in the end. Yumi not being there might be her being hurt or something because it seems so odd.

Rating: *** (good double-teams and building to the finish, though a bit disappointing given how little Fukawa got to contribute)

SHOOT STYLE MATCH:
REGGIE BENNETT vs. RODINA IRINA:
* Oh for crap’s sake, again? Reggie does a shoot match against a Russian woman of similar size. Looking it up, Irina (whose name I’m not sure about- I think ARSION botched it and people are translating the botch because Rodina is an IRL sambo fighter) is a world-class Sambo wrestler and Reggie has zero chance in the world if this is a shoot. These must have a “no punching” role because they’re just slapping. Irena seems to be stronger and a better wrestler but can’t get anything going (Reggie won’t un-clinch). Irena finally hauls her over with a judo-style throw (with a pretty weak grip on one arm- she’s STRONG), and wrestles Bennett into an overhead hammerlock pressing against the ring-mat, and the referee actually calls it at (6:49). Reggie is outraged as she didn’t give up and there was “no catch” (“my arm was not in danger”), but the bulk of Irena might have been covering it up.

AJA KONG vs. AYAKO HAMADA:
* Hamada vs. the best carry-artist in wrestling- this’ll be interesting. Aja is the best at showing the best traits of her opponents, while Ayako needs a LOT of reining in still. She wants to fly like a luchadore but is still very young and can’t even sell properly yet, much less hit all her stuff dead-on. Aja’s in black/gold & Ayako’s in a shiny powder-blue bodysuit this time. The “Super Rookie” does a flip into the ring and she’s greeted by smoke from all four ring-posts in a ludicrous display of monies for a struggling indie. She’s like 18 years old and this is gonna be a major test of Aja’s carrying abilities. Ayako gets WAY in Aja’s face during the introductions, resulting in a double hair-pull- ohhhhh she gonna die.

Good start as Ayako does run-up moonsault and a JB Angels armdrag attempts, only for Aja to pull back on both, being too smart for that. Aja is hesitant but eventually muscles Hamada into the body attack and her methodical beatdown, finally pinpointing the taped-up arm. But Aja misses an elbow and Hamada senses her moment, hitting a ropewalk armdrag (with an unfortunate pause in the middle that ruins the moment as it stops momentum), but Aja quickly no-sells weak strikes and crushes her again. Ayako gets a lionsault press but Aja kicks out immediately and lariats her down, Ayako getting NOTHING going but she’s able to catch Aja getting overconfident by dodging her 2nd-rope splash and shoves her to the floor for a springboard moonsault suicida!

Aja’s stunned a bit, but avoids another springboard move and completes her splash for two. Aja keeps countering counters but ends up taking the mandatory sunset bomb reversal off the top- missile dropkick spam has her downed, leading to a flying spin DDT for two. Ayako gets German’d off the middle rope trying another slingshot, but no-sells and hits a rana, but Aja pounces with backdrop drivers for two. A tired Aja goes for her Brainbuster, but Ayako avoids that and the Uraken for a German, getting two. Ayako senses her moment and goes for two straight lionsaults into a full Springboard Moonsault for two, but misses a standard moonsault and Aja Brainbusters her for two- Ayako barely gets her toe on the ropes. Ayako, out of ideas, tries a HEADBUTT of all things and that goes about how you’d expect, Aja getting two off her own with a cocky pin, then finishes her off with the Uraken to Ayako’s immobile frame for three (13:32). Aja gives a forehead-to-forehead “nice going, kid” rub to a half-dead Ayako after the match.

A very basic “Aja Template Match”, based around her being too tough to harm, slowly wearing down her opponent, being a “base” for stuff, but ultimately letting her opponent shine by selling something- in this case Ayako’s ability to avoid stuff and follow-up with a big flashy move. It was so by-the-numbers that Aja was probably carrying every single thing (a good idea, given Ayako was like 7 months into her career at this point), but worked for what it was- an unprepared kid going up against a legendary monster and only able to capitalize off of Aja’s slower speed, but could only spam out high-flying moves as her only reliable way to harm Aja, which inevitably backfired. Aja seemed to be losing steps in cardio (or was just selling so- you never know with her), but her old reliable offense carried the day.

Rating: **3/4 (about as good as you’re gonna get out of Ayako at this point)

Rossy Ogawa was MASSIVELY into Candy, who gets one of the biggest pushes in ARSION’s first year. She was a retired JWP wrestler who suddenly un-retires, becomes Tiger Dream, and works a lot of main events in ARSION.

QUEEN OF ARSION TITLE DECISION MATCH:
MARIKO YOSHIDA vs. CANDY OKUTSU:
* It’s finally time for ARSION to get a singles championship! And it’s Yoshida and Okutsu for the belt… which is a bit funny, as I can’t imagine anyone thought Candy was winning. She HAS won a bunch this year, Rossy is a fan, she got the “Female Tiger Mask” thing, and she was in one of the best joshi matches of 1998 with Futagami, but she’s still very “upper midcard”. But then I guess so is Yoshida, who’s yet to REALLY beat the top veterans of the early ’90s. Both of them beat Reggie Bennett with grappling holds in ARSION so far, and have steadily picked up wins, at least. Candy’s now wearing Diesel’s singlet with a silver tanktop, and Yoshida’s in the usual Spider-Woman gear.

They take wide-stances into matwork to start, Yoshida mounting with a kimura and more precision stuff, but Candy repeatedly twisting with simpler grabs to take control. Yoshida gets a DDT, chinlock & tries a cross-armbreaker, but Candy’s blocking most of it, getting hot and turning it into a slugfest and her Run-Up Cross-Body! Yoshida throws her off but eats a DDT, but a flying splash misses- Yoshida leaps on with a nasty-looking thigh-choke (figure-fouring her legs around Candy’s throat), Candy making a good show out of desperately rolling around and finally hitting the ropes. Candy resists a knee so Yoshida drills her in the nose, and Candy is PISSED, hitting a big lariat on the follow-through from missing her first one. But she tries a move and Yoshida turns the grip into another arm-thing, and Candy squirms out and hits a release German to escape. Yoshida reverses a whip, causing Candy to fly off with ANOTHER Run-Up move, but now Yoshida’s wise and destroys the arm with a Fujiwara armbar from a mid-air catch! She turns it into a back-mounted Rings of Saturn using her legs to grapple the other arm, but Candy sells it like a basic resthold and hits the ropes.

A double-whip-reversal leads to Yoshida hitting a nasty pumphandle backdrop suplex for two (somehow trying to pin Candy on her side at first). Yoshida keeps hitting sleepers to ground her, resisting Candy’s comebacks, and transitions to her finisher- the choke against her thigh before Candy escapes and lariats her in the nose. Brainbuster! That gets two- Candy fights her way into a Superduperplex, then hits DDTs and a Moonsault! Another one! And another (facing forward then spinning to flip back)! Yoshida barely kicks out at two, really selling those impacts, but reverses Candy’s German to an anklelock, threaded into a figure-four when she rolls out. Candy hits a Jackknife Powerbomb (omg, she IS Nash!), then showboats and hits the Rolling Germans for two! That was close, and Candy tries a suplex, but Yoshida rolls into a Fujiwara, and rolls through a reversal to put Candy over her back- AIR RAID CRASH! Candy kicks out at two but Yoshida IMMEDIATELY clamps on a headscissors/armlock, then threads that to her Modified Sleeper. Candy nearly escapes, so Yoshida lets go, drags her to the middle, and reapplies- a blank-faced Candy finally taps at (16:05). An emotional Yoshida accepts the champion’s trophy and stuff at the end, finally having been crowned with a title.

Mariko Yoshida becomes Queen of ARSION!

Another very interesting ARSION match, as it’s played like Yoshida is dominant and calling all the shots on the mat, but whenever Candy escapes she can hit her shit. But every time she grapples, there’s Yoshida spidering her into some damn thing. Candy sold the submissions… OKAY-ish. A couple she made a bit show of kicking her feet to move about, but other times there’s this big armbar and she can barely be bothered to scream, so to me (and the audience) it reads as a resthold no matter how hard Yoshida is cranking the shit out of it. Same with those sleeperholds, and even the FINISHER, where she doesn’t even flail her arms! Never mind how she’d just make the ropes and not even sell the limb or neck- makes it feel like those holds are “filler” when in ARSION they’re supposed to be the actual match. Though it’s interesting to see AJW-style transitions (which almost always happen from Irish whips) mixed with Grapplefuckery-style ones (grabbing a limb when someone tries something on you). Yoshida did really good in carrying this, though- she did all the matwork (you could tell Candy didn’t know heads from tails there and it was Yoshida wrapping her up) and then opened herself up for flashy comebacks to put Candy over, selling them like they were catching her and causing a lot of pain.

Rating: ***3/4 (a very, very good exhibition of grappling by Yoshida, with Candy’s comebacks being well-timed, but it’s hard to take submissions seriously when the person taking them is just kinda kicking her feet a little, you know?)

All in all, a better ARSION show that the summer ones, ending in a good match to establish the promotion’s first Champion, who is importantly their best in-ring wrestler next to Aja, thus making a new “Ace”. Though filling 1/5 of a building (thus making the crowd sound like shit and look bad on camera) for this is not a good sign. Pushing Candy Okutsu as one of the top wrestlers in your promotion is doomed even if she has improved a lot, though, and Ayako Hamada’s still being pushed too soon, and all the shootfight stuff is awful and I hope we don’t see much more of it. So it’s a mixed bag- good tag champs and a good top wrestler, but what’s their plan now? Mariko’s already beaten Reggie & Candy, leaving only Aja (from a Time Over earlier in the year), so it’s the usual “Late ’90s Joshi Problem” of a tiny company with only a few credible wrestlers.